The NFL Is Seriously Concerned With Empty Stadiums

[Eleazar]

The NFL Is Seriously Concerned With Empty Stadiums

By: Ryan Phillips | September 13, 2017


Week 1 of the NFL season had plenty of important stories worth following, but maybe the most entertaining was the mostly empty stadiums in Los Angeles and Santa Clara. Both the Los Angeles Rams and San Francisco 49ers had sparse crowds for their home openers, and that has not gone unnoticed by the NFL.


Ian Rapoport ✔ @RapSheet
NFL spokesman Joe Lockhart on the attendance in LA & SF: “Any time we empty seats that something we want to address.” Focused on sellouts.
10:29 AM - Sep 13, 2017


Ian Rapoport’s report (try and say that fast five times) above shows that the league is clearly worried about the optics of half-filled stadiums. And they should be. It’s embarrassing for the league.

This is what the 49ers crowd looked like at the start of the second half in Week 1:



And here’s what the Rams crowd looked like in the first quarter:



Here’s the thing, the NFL’s plans for relocating teams have been hilariously ham-fisted. Moving the 49ers to Santa Clara, 45 minutes from San Francisco was a moronic decision. Levi’s Stadium is also positioned so roughly 70 percent of the stadium bakes in the sun with no chance of shade.

Meanwhile, the Rams might actually have decent attendance once they move into their new stadium, but that’s a huge gamble. Until then, they’ll likely be dealing with sparse crowds at the Coliseum for the next three seasons. It’s terrible optics for the NFL to have empty stadiums and absolutely no atmosphere for games.

And we haven’t even gotten to the Los Angeles Chargers, who haven’t even been able to sellout a 27,000-seat stadium. No one wanted the Chargers in Los Angeles, and it has shown so far. Dean Spanos and his family have consistently claimed they are pleased with ticket sales and “excited” about what’s happened with the franchise in LA, but look at the following picture for the team’s first ever official game in Los Angeles:



That was taken just before publishing this piece. Everything in color there is a ticket on sale for the team’s Week 2 matchup with the Miami Dolphins. Many of them are “re-sale” tickets that were likely snagged up by brokers when season tickets went on sale. Those brokers will likely aim to sell those seats to opposing fans all season. That graphic is stunning because it comes from just one ticket selling website, and there are several others that each have hundreds of tickets available.

The fact that the Chargers can’t find 27,000 fans to fill their tiny soccer stadium home for their opener in a new city would be shocking if you hadn’t followed this move from the beginning. But, let’s be real: there is zero buzz around the team, fan outreach efforts have been widely mocked and San Diego fans have abandoned the franchise en masse after the way the team’s ownership treated its former city. No matter how much lipstick the NFL tries to put on that situation, it’s always going to look like a pig.

Empty stadiums are a huge deal to the NFL. Yes, the league makes its money off of TV contracts, but when fans aren’t at games it has a detrimental impact on the product. It sends the message that games are boring, uninteresting and that people don’t want to have anything to do with them in person. That kind of message hurts the product as a whole.

Not to mention, players don’t want to play in empty stadiums, so those franchises will suffer when it comes time to lure free agents. That could lead to some teams being buried at the bottom of the league year after year and creating a cycle that leaves fans even less incentive to show up.

This is a major problem for the NFL. Maybe owners around the league will finally realize that their big, bold stadium and relocation plans should actually have more thought attached to them.


http://thebiglead.com/2017/09/13/the...mpty-stadiums/

[cdcox]

The brain injury thing is by far the biggest threat to the NFL.

[Prison Bitch]

Originally Posted by DaneMcCloud

Plenty of gold seats empty at the Chiefs game

There were 75,000 there today, dipshit

[GloucesterChief]

USC > Rams & Chargers combined.

[GloryDayz]

Originally Posted by Direckshun

I think the biggest problem is just prices.

Arrowhead would pack every game if they cut parking 2/3rds and lowered ticket prices 15%.

Of course, that would cost the teams money, which is what this is really about.

The NFL isn't concerned about empty stadiums, they're concerned about money. If they wanted to pack stadiums, it would be insanely easy.

I agree.

[chiefzilla1501]

Prices are far from the only issue.

The NFL has been dying a slow death for years. Because every single step of the way, the owners/Goodell have chosen money over the right thing to do. They gladly restricted TV viewership while other sports have expanded to make games more accessible. Their merchandise is so unaffordable. They've made football completely unwatchable for bad teams. Players aren't allowed to have personalities. Maybe a clue about why the NFL is struggling to find marketable superstars post-Peyton. Most NFL stadiums are doing fine with ticket sales, but who are they trying to bring in? Is it the loud, screaming nuts or is it the guy who sits down all game.. maybe a hint as to why fan noise seems to be getting more and more sterile? There's only so many ways you can make a game unaccessible to the average fan before you start to lose the diehards. That's the big difference I've seen. It's amazing to me how many diehard friends or even bars have just had the energy deflated out of them.

[BryanBusby]

It's 95% price.

**** paying 35 dollars to park a car, 11 dollars a beer and 100 something a ticket for a decent seat.

Between parking, food and drinks for a family of 4 you're easily out around $500 for everything.

$500 is a lot of money to most people.

[beach tribe]

Originally Posted by saphojunkie

They're going to have to lower ticket prices, period. It's simple economics. It seems to me that they could get ahead of the curve and lower ticket sales preemptively. Why wait for the market to sour so much that you are forced to lower them, and enthusiasm has waned?

Enthusiasm is still relatively high. You could make your desirable product more accessible, and maintain your momentum. Or you can bleed it dry and shutter your doors in 20 years.

The popularity got so huge that they thought they could do no wrong.

they were wrong ..

[baitism]

The parking and getting to the game sucks balls. Why hasn't KC invested in a shuttle service to Truman Sports Complex? If I didn't have to pay through my teeth for parking, I would be more likely to come.

Econ 101 would say lower ticket prices, but that would require the NFL to swallow their pride.

[beach tribe]

Originally Posted by BryanBusby

It's 95% price.

**** paying 35 dollars to park a car, 11 dollars a beer and 100 something a ticket for a decent seat.

Between parking, food and drinks for a family of 4 you're easily out around $500 for everything.

$500 is a lot of money to most people.

I don't want to start shit with Dane because we've been through it too many times, but way back I tried to make this point and somehow Dane and I got into an argument over what percentage of the population makes over 6 figures.
Talking about individual incomes here.
I tried to tell him that the majority of people in America do not make that much.
He thought I was an idiot and said everyone he knows does.
Dane is very successful and his friends are as well and they live in an affluent area.
NFL executives are the same way.
They think because they have disposable income that most people do as well.
The truth is, however, that the majority of people are just getting by and $500 is a pretty steep weekend.

[BryanBusby]

Originally Posted by beach tribe

I don't want to start shit with Dane because we've been through it too many times, but way back I tried to make this point and somehow Dane and I got into an argument over what percentage of the population makes over 6 figures.
Talking about individual incomes here.
I tried to tell him that the majority of people in America do not make that much.
He thought I was an idiot and said everyone he knows does.
Dane is very successful and his friends are as well and they live in an affluent area.
NFL executives are the same way.
They think because they have disposable income that most people do as well.
The truth is, however, that the majority of people are just getting by and $500 is a pretty steep weekend.

A lot of stable income households can come up with $500 dollars, but it's just a shitty way to get 3 hours of entertainment.

The value isn't there.

[Bowser]

Originally Posted by DaneMcCloud

Plenty of gold seats empty at the Chiefs game

Most likely the people that belonged to those empty seats were inside the club level enjoying the amenities in there. Lots of big screens inside the club level with some decent bars and couches to watch the game.

[Rausch]

Perhaps SF should give discounts to BLM and Antifa...

[GloryDayz]

Originally Posted by chiefzilla1501

Prices are far from the only issue.

The NFL has been dying a slow death for years. Because every single step of the way, the owners/Goodell have chosen money over the right thing to do. They gladly restricted TV viewership while other sports have expanded to make games more accessible. Their merchandise is so unaffordable. They've made football completely unwatchable for bad teams. Players aren't allowed to have personalities. Maybe a clue about why the NFL is struggling to find marketable superstars post-Peyton. Most NFL stadiums are doing fine with ticket sales, but who are they trying to bring in? Is it the loud, screaming nuts or is it the guy who sits down all game.. maybe a hint as to why fan noise seems to be getting more and more sterile? There's only so many ways you can make a game unaccessible to the average fan before you start to lose the diehards. That's the big difference I've seen. It's amazing to me how many diehard friends or even bars have just had the energy deflated out of them.

Quality post. I still go on occasion, heck I even looked at tix Saturday (and there were plenty), but my days of being a STH are probably done. It's mostly price for me, the NFL just can't resist raping you, twice, at every turn, and that sucks!

[GloryDayz]

Originally Posted by BryanBusby

A lot of stable income households can come up with $500 dollars, but it's just a shitty way to get 3 hours of entertainment.

The value isn't there.

Ding ding ding ding ding...

It doesn't mean we don't love our Chiefs, it means the "value" isn't there. And while value is defined in the eye of the beholder, the more you charge the more people will want in return.

[Eleazar]

Originally Posted by beach tribe

I don't want to start shit with Dane because we've been through it too many times, but way back I tried to make this point and somehow Dane and I got into an argument over what percentage of the population makes over 6 figures.
Talking about individual incomes here.
I tried to tell him that the majority of people in America do not make that much.
He thought I was an idiot and said everyone he knows does.
Dane is very successful and his friends are as well and they live in an affluent area.
NFL executives are the same way.
They think because they have disposable income that most people do as well.
The truth is, however, that the majority of people are just getting by and $500 is a pretty steep weekend.

I think $500 is a conservative estimate as to what a family of four would have to spend to attend a game.

The bottom line is probably that a middle class family that has $500 looks at $500-600-700) to attend a single Chiefs game and sees that it would cost them a big chunk of a house payment, a big portion of their kids' Christmas gifts, a sizeable chunk of money toward a family vacation, etc. More and more middle class people are deciding that those things are more important than one football game.

We all say the same things here. Even though most of us have plenty of disposable income, we say that for the money it costs, the hassle of congestion, missing most of a quarter in line for the bathroom, drunks, weather, the possibility of a poor performance ruining the whole day, whatever -

People on CP every day type that it's not worth the money for one person versus the comfort of one's couch. Why would it be different for a family of four?